Life of Larisa or LOL

One of the great things about living on O'ahu is that you don't have to travel far to get a really terrific view or to experience lush gardens or forests.  Nature is in our backyard.  And our front yard.  And our side yard.  It's easily accessible year round and I like to take advantage of that.   This past Thursday, my bestie Sarah, my hiking partner Mary, and I knew we wanted to hike, but the weather was cloudy with sporadic rain showers which equals mud and not my ideal hiking situation.  We were also on a limited time schedule again and decided that getting outside was the most important thing---so we headed through the tunnels and over to the windward side to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens.  Ho'omaluhia, or "a peaceful refuge" is in Kane'ohe on 400 acres of gorgeous land.  I've never seen a flood protection area that looked as nice as these gardens.  There are plants (labeled throughout) from several other tropical landscap

September 2009 was the last time I climbed 1,048 steps up "the devil's trail".  I was eight years younger than I am now.  I had one less child.  I was not hiking all of the time, in fact, I was baking cupcakes daily.  But for reasons I have probably blocked out, Isom, Gabe (who was 6 at the time), and I climbed/hiked the Koko Crater Stairs.  I vowed never to return. Never say never!  Eight years later, now with two kids, and definitely an avid hiker, I finally mustered the courage to re-evaluate/return/re-do Koko Crater Stairs.  While the first time was brutal, I'm pretty sure I likened the hike to childbirth (click here to read the original post ), this second (and hopefully final time) was better...but still not great. Last Tuesday, the kids had just started Fall Break from school.  It was the perfect opportunity to get together for a hiking, beach, and lunch out adventure day with our favorites, the Pommerenk family.  The weather was slightl